Page 3 of Skin Trade

“I was just thinking you might be bossy,” she said. Her apology rested on her lips, but she didn’t let it go.

“Bossy?”

A nod.

He barked out a laugh, and it was a deep, broad laugh that filled not just the room, but something in her too. “Yes,” he said in the end. “I suppose I am rather used to getting my own way. Is that going to be a problem?”

A flame shot along her spine and to her cheeks, making them redden. She ground her jaw, dared. “Not if you let me leave, it won’t be.”

“But I paid for you.”

She said nothing. That was the truth of it. He had. She was his until she either died, or he sold her on.

“That makes you angry with me?”

“I don’t know you well enough to establish any opinions.”

“I don’t believe you. It takes three seconds to form an opinion. You must have one.”

“I am not angry.”

He tilted his head. “But there is something.”

Her thoughts raced. Yes … there was something. But she was in no position to speak her mind, and she didn’t care to. What would it matter? She wasn’t like the other women. She wasn’t in this because she had dreams of becoming like one of them one day. “Am I to bathe myself?” she asked in the end.

He leant into her, eyes levelling with hers. “No,” he said. He hooked his fingers under the chain just below her chin and slid his hand down, so his knuckles brushed along her bare flesh. Goosebumps rose along her skin, creating a path where his hand moved, and when he got to the top of her breasts, he moved his hand slower and watched her. "I want to do this part."

Chapter Three

Payton glared at the man before her. She still didn't know his name, and she wasn't going to ask him. No. She stood there, full of will and determination. She wasn't going to squirm either, or hide, or show any weakness that would give him the upper hand. Not a chance. Fuck him. She flat out refused.

But although her will was strong, even she couldn’t deny the jitter in her belly. It didn’t stop the dance of butterflies igniting every vein in her being, every capillary. He watched with a gaze so intense, so fierce; she had to fight to keep herself strong.

Even as he ran his fingers along her bare skin, from the valley between her breasts, down toward her navel, she kept herself still. The chain was heated when it touched her skin again from his hand, or maybe it was just her. The thought made her even more determined not to react, but it was so fucking hard. He slipped his hand below her navel, and an instant reaction, she sucked in her belly, and he laughed.

“You are awake then,” he said. “Good. Now, sit on the chair while I run your bath.”

There were two chairs in the room. One had the towel on it, and she hadn’t realised before, but there was a piece of fabric there. Perhaps a gown of some kind. It looked expensive, but then what did she know? She’d be lucky if she knew silk from polyester. The other chair was empty. She took that one and sat. The movement made the chain drag, and she hooked a finger inside her collar to relieve some of the pressure against her skin. It did no use, though. The collar was metal and unyielding.

Along the shelf, near to the bath, stood three jars. They were each a different colour, and without needing to read the label, Payton knew they were bleach, a purifying salt and healing salts. Not that the latter ever did any good.

The man added only the salts, and that was fine by her. The bleach was the part that hurt like it stripped a layer of skin away. She could already feel the icy burn along her skin, and he hadn’t even added it yet.

And he didn’t.

He kept looking at her as he ran the bath. They were glances, stolen almost, but they weren't shy—he wasn't a fearful boy looking at a girl. No. He was a man with hunger in his eyes—hunger and something else, something wild and feral.

After he turned off the taps, he took a small packet from his front pocket, bit off a corner and tipped the contents into the water. It was green, and the scent from it reached her.

“Sage?”

He nodded. “I find sage is much better than this stuff.” He tapped the jar of bleach with his knuckle.

“I thought sage was meant to be used to ward off evil spirits.”

“It is.”

“You think I have an evil spirit?”

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